The area began as a 40-
acre (162,000 m2) tract east of the city of Dallas. The Beeman family had settled there in the 1860s and in 1872,
William H. Gaston began promoting the area for development. Four families settled there at the time, but when the railroads
came to Dallas, a number of railroad workers came and built houses between Dallas and East Dallas. Gaston gave the railroad companies
US$5,000 and free
right-of-way through his land to persuade them to build through East Dallas. The
Houston and Texas Central Railroad arrived on 16 July 1872 and the
Texas and Pacific Railway arrived on 22 February 1873. On 9 September 1882, the area was incorporated into a city called "East Dallas" (though many thought it should be called "Gaston") on a tract of 1,400 acres (5,670,000 m2). The small town used an
aldermanic form of government and in 1883 it passed a
tax ordinance to raise money for civic services. In 1883, the first schools in the area were built for 400
white students and 60
black students. In 1886, the first all-
brick schoolhouse in
Dallas County was constructed in East Dallas. This school was also the East Dallas City Hall. Until 1900, when the City of Dallas annexed East Dallas, the ground floor held the municipal offices, and the upper floors housed the school. In 1922, Baylor Hospital acquired the building. Fair grounds were originally located near what is now I-45 and Pacific Avenue. They were relocated to the area of Gaston and Hall Street in 1872. In 1887, the
State Fair of Texas and Dallas Exposition at
Fair Park opened, giving the area further growth. This third location is where the Fair still occurs. By the late 1880s, East Dallas had 6,000 residents and by 1889, 90% of the homes in the city had running water. In 1889, Texas state senator
R.S. Kimbrough tried to get a bill run through the state legislature to remove East Dallas' charter so it could be annexed into Dallas. It is generally believed that the act was to make Dallas the largest city in Texas; and the efforts in fact did make Dallas the largest city in Texas by the 1890 census. On 31 December 1889, the day before East Dallas became part of Dallas, East Dallas' city council passed $45,000 in street improvements which the city of Dallas had to finance. Under the newly adopted charter, the city of Dallas took in all of East Dallas' debt. == Neighborhoods ==